Welcome Back

Welcome back my little cupcake! Camden is finally home after a month with family. I missed him so much and we have a lot of catching up to do! We didn't have such a great night when he got home because he was missing everyone. He called me Emily about 20 times and finally apologized for not calling me Mommy. I told him that I understood completely! He had surprises for us. Daddy got an Air Force sign and I got a blue frog. I told him that I would sleep with it every night!

Camden got to go to several Bible Schools while he was back home. He had made a Prayer Journal and I wanted to share one of his prayers that he wrote: "Loud (Lord) I love you. I hope to see you when I duiy (die), I hope you had a great day. I had a great day to. I love you, Camden."  He always writes in it at bedtime so most of his prayers were regarding, "Can you help me sleep?" Too precious!
And don't worry...he didn't get spoiled by anyone!!! Ha!

Something Cool

Recently I had to fill out some paperwork on base and I took Camden along with me. In this particular building there is a huge plane hanging from the ceiling. It is something really cool and Camden liked it! I, on the other hand, was a smidge scared to walk under it! Yikes! I sure hope those cables never break because there is nothing like a plane dropping on your head! Or so you would think!

 

Photo Shoot

It was a perfect morning and the lighting was just right. All I needed was one happy child to get a couple of quick shots. Instead I ended up with one not so happy child that absolutely wanted to sit in this chair and look as miserable as possible. Hey, you win some, you lose some.... How about a pretend smile?

I don't know where it went wrong, but a mysterious itch came over the not so happy child. I was standing in the same tall grass as him. It took him over and would not let go!

This was the end of a great photo op. Yes, my Sunshine does come with a little "Rain", but oh how I love him!

Fish Fry 2012

Yes, friends, that is what you think it is...some deep fried southern Catfish. Yummy! We all got together to celebrate someone that turned the Big 5-0. That would be Craig and he sure does love him a fish fry! We didn't mind gaining 50 pounds for his birthday! That's what family is for. We ate too much but it was so worth all the belly aching afterwards! This is Grandma's world famous homemade hush puppies! They are to die for and don't have any calories. Imagine that!

Before we stuffed ourselves silly there was some playing going on in the over 100 degree afternoon. I am not sure that the heat didn't get to these two! Ha!

And I have to do a Big Shout Out to Uncle Jeff who is the Number One Fan of The Shoe Box!!! 

Things

We may need to start putting Bentley in a car seat! I don't know why he thinks he is a human and likes to sit like one!?!? He is such a silly boy. He has been getting lots of attention since Camden is still visiting with the grandparents. He loves it, but I think deep down he is missing his Camden. Just like Mommy and Daddy! We miss Camden terribly, but we are also thankful that he gets to spend some time with family that he doesn't get to see very often.


Camden is having a grand time on his vacation. He helped Grandma B make her famous Chocolate Chip cookies today. He also helped Grandma A pick some beans out of the garden last week. He picked a whole seven beans. Don't over do it Camden! Ha! He has had many visitor over for swim parties and has been studying up on his multiplication. This is something that he is supposed to prepare for when he starts Third grade next month. Awesome!  Camden has been to several Vacation Bible Schools and has really enjoyed them and is starting to truly understand and comprehend.  Next up, he will be traveling to the beach with the cousins! I am sure he will have some stories to tell when he comes home! We love you Camden!!

4th of July Party

It is tradition to hang out at my parents house after the July 4th parade. We always eat hamburgers and hot dogs and all kinds of desserts. Then we lounge around the pool wondering why on earth we would eat that much food in the horrible heat. Not a good combination! This July 4th was no exception, the food was incredible! Camden got a little grilling experience from Daddy this year....Tim is an expert on all things grilled! Except for maybe that one time that he blew up some chicken!

 

Camden was wondering where he would put all of his food since he ate half of his candy at the parade earlier!

 Then it was pool time! We were melting by this point!

 A few years ago us girls decided that we would have a best dessert contest and let the guys pick the winner. We had lots of very creative entries:

 It turned out that Michelle and Kaye's very awesome Statue of Liberty cake got the prize!! It was amazing!! And that was the last time we had a dessert contest ever! Ha!

 We had such a great time spending the 4th with family that we don't get to see often enough and then we topped it off by going to see a fireworks show. We didn't get home until after midnight, but it was worth it!

Parade

I have been going to this small town 4th of July parade for as long as I can remember. It is a joy to be able to take Camden there each year so he can have those wonderful memories as well. He loves to catch the candy they throw out!

A special nod to Andy Griffith who passed away the day before.

 Michelle and Brandon. He does love him some tractors!

It was a hot one that day! Over 100 degrees and we were about to melt! We had so much fun in spite of the sweltering heat and Camden got a whole bag of candy!

Sneak Peak

Here is a little sneak peak of a photo shoot that I did with Camden. Obviously he was not too interested and it was all down hill from there. His legs started mysteriously itching and he refused to smile. I am loving my new camera that I got for my birthday, but I really need to get a new subject to shoot. If only Bentley could smile!!!
Speaking of Bentley, he grabbed a cucumber off my kitchen counter and decided to play with it. He does this every great once in a while with random fruit or vegetables that happen to be on the counter. He is crazy and mean! Anyway, I will post the rest of this train wreck photo shoot later on!

Camden is back home visiting family for a few weeks while Tim and I take care of a few projects around the house. Camden has been shopping several times already and even bought himself a new bathing suit. I know you can never have enough bathing suits but I had just gotten him a new one a week ago! He may be dangerous someday! 


Here is a shot that my Mom got of us that turned out pretty good! We just have so few pictures of us all together and I guess that is why it is so meaningful to me, but not these two. They would rather be doing men things. Camden will thank me one day for making him smile for the camera! Ha Ha!

 

Happy July 4th

Tim went to a graduation ceremony last week. Since he had to wear dress blues this led to someone else needing to get dressed up...

We hope you all have an exceptional Fourth of July spending time with family, eating a watermelon, making homemade ice cream, grilling out, swimming, watching fire works and of course, celebrating America the Beautiful!

Yummy!

Cupcakes just make me smile! There is something about them that just says LOVE. Another thing is that they are so small you can eat more than one and it ends up to be about the size of a piece of cake! What more could you ask for? My friend, Amanda, is on a quest to eat a ton of junk food before she turns 40 next week and her metabolism changes. So I thought I would help her out with these oh so cute little cupcakes! 

On a totally different note, Bentley has been loving him some frisbee. It has been way to hot for him to run, but we caught a few pics of him last week. He is crazy in love with his frisbee and he is pretty good at catching it. He did unfortunately have an accident recently when he ran into Camden's bike while he was running for the frisbee. He cut his leg and it didn't look good but he was ok. Thank goodness!

Random Camden

 "Is Santa Claus real or is it you, Mommy?" Oh, I might cry!

After Camden had a shower one night, I heard him ask Daddy, "Who invented the bath?" 

Camden was determined to never go back to daycare because someone called him a "Crack Head". Oh my!

"Mommy, is Rock, Paper, Scissors an evil game?" Ummm, not that I know of! 

Camden gets to go to the YMCA once a week with his daycare. He asked me, "Mommy want to smell my towel? If you smell it you will know what the men's locker room at the Y smells like!" Really, NO thanks!

Camden told me that you can start a car without a key. I told him that I did not know that. He said, "It's easy! It's called hot wiring!" I can't imagine where he is learning this stuff. I hope he doesn't ever put that one to use!